Food, Photography and Bon Mots
“Cooking is a craft, I like to think, and a good cook is a craftsman — not an artist. There’s nothing wrong with that: the great cathedrals of Europe were built by craftsmen — though not designed by them. Practicing your craft in expert fashion…
What do you cook when life throws you a curve? Comfort food. Mushrooms. Wild rice. Butter. As I convalesce after recently breaking my knee while gardening (I know. I know. It was a real klutz move.), I have been focused on food that is easy…
Put everything down. Make this soup. Now. It is that good. In fact, it is a fantastic soup—rich, umami-packed, beautiful in the bowl. The most important factor with this soup is, of course, its full flavor. A close second is its absolute beauty. The soup…
I made this Indian mushroom curry for an important party recently. What a great recipe! I remember eating a lot of wonderful food in India, but I don’t remember mushrooms. So it was with some surprise I found Mushroom Masala Curry on the buffet at…
It’s ugly. There. I said it. This Artichoke and Mushroom Soup is not going to win any beauty prizes. It is sort of a drab grey brown. That said, looks aren’t everything. This creamy soup is delicious! My suggestion is to serve this soup on…
Humans have been consuming mushrooms for a very long time and for many reasons. Greek warriors were fed mushrooms to make them stronger. Mushrooms were used in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years–many times for the purpose of enhancing the immune system. In the…
I finally got my hands on a copy of Melissa Clark’s Dinner In One cookbook. To say that the cookbook’s delivery was “delayed” is an understatement. Seems that in the crush of pandemic-delayed shipping, the original cargo container carrying Clark’s cookbook went plunging into the…
You can go home again! After a too long Covid-related hiatus and with a nudge from some good friends, I finally made it back to the Long Beach Marina Farmers Market. As I strolled through the trimmed-down market, I was reminded of the many reasons…
My good friend Carol gave me a delightful gift for my birthday— grow-your-own oyster mushrooms. As it turned out, the gift triggered my long-suppressed American Gothic. You know…the farm, the pitchfork, the Willie Nelson concert. There I was every day for a couple of…
Portobellos are gourmet mushrooms. Right? Actually…no. Portobellos are poseurs. They are just your common Agaricus bisporus (button) mushroom with good PR. Who knew? It turns out that until the 1980s, those big beefy mushrooms we now call portobellos were the overly-mature culls that more often…
